I recently purchased an Crane Song Avocet. Plugged it in and noticed a huge improvement in the sound. I AB-d my Fireface 800 by connecting analog outs to the analog ins of the Avocet, and switched between them and the digi spdif. Night and day. FF murky, Avocet clean and bright.

I almost couldn't believe the difference. So much so that I googled problems with the FF. Found a few threads (like this) with people reinstalling the firmware after similar problems with great success. I did this, and now there is minimal difference between them. I'm gutted that i've been mixing for over a year with that sound.. Ouch.

So questions:

1) Have any of you experienced similar to this?
2) What could have caused it in the first place?

Bonus 3) Am I going mad?

Thank you !